XBMC

xbmcI’ve mentioned Xbox Media Center (XBMC) before but the new updates are top smart. First up is a new web radio interface. Makes browsing through hundreds of Internet radio stations a breeze. Second is a link into Apple’s movie trailer site which means you can stream and watch trailers on the TV with ease. Finally there’s a link to game trailers at Microsoft.

Linking into the pc is easy and means I can browse the all my music (and album art finally works well) and select play lists at will. Can then easily switch to movies stored on the media server pc, the Xbox itself or slap in a dvd. If you are into home entertainment in any way, a chipped Xbox and XBMC really are worth investigating.

 

Star Wars DVD

I’ve finally given in (to the force) and ordered the Star Wars trilogy. Amazon will deliver on the day of release (20th Sep) but the chances of it coming that day are slim. Digital Bits has a review of the box set and also screens of some of the changes that are in this release.

It’s a pity the DVD release didn’t take advantage of branching to allow the original and these updated editions to exist on one disk. The tampering Lucas has employed with the originals does not, in my book, make the films any more watch able. Indeed some shots just look wrong when mixed in with the new effects. More fool me for buying them. But I’m looking forward to seeing them – it’s years since I’ve watched them in full and I’ve a week off at the end of September. Perfect.